Regina replayed the moment Mason raised the taser. She turned the phone away before it reached her own scream. Francis noticed. "You don't have to watch it again," he told her.
"Somebody has to," she answered. He could not argue with that, but he wanted to protect her from the repeated injury of hearing her own fear. At the table, their dinner grew cold between them, and the television news played quietly in the living room without either of them paying attention to it.
"They apologized," Regina said eventually. "Captain Vanji came herself. That should mean something." Francis moved a piece of chicken around his plate. "An apology matters when it comes with an honest account of what happened."
Regina studied him. "You don't think they'll give us one?" He thought of Mason's expression after the credential confirmation, that mixture of embarrassment and anger, as though the officer was more upset at being contradicted than concerned about pointing a weapon at an innocent person. "I think I need to see the report," he said.
At 10:04 that night, his phone rang. The caller identification showed the local police department. Regina was curled at the far end of the couch, trying unsuccessfully to follow a television program. Francis answered on the second ring.
"Willard." The caller identified himself as Lieutenant Cooper at the night desk and said Captain Vanji had requested that he make a courtesy notification. Francis straightened before the lieutenant finished speaking.
"Officer Mason has submitted his incident report," Cooper said. Francis nodded at the empty room. "Good. I'd like the report number and a copy when available." Cooper took a slow breath.
"There is a discrepancy I think you should know about. The report characterizes your conduct as uncooperative and increasingly aggressive. It says you refused lawful commands and made movements that caused officers to fear escalation." Francis looked at Regina, who sat upright as his expression changed. He asked Cooper to repeat the language and wrote it down on the back of an envelope.
"That's false," he said when the lieutenant finished. "I did not move toward any officer, threaten anybody, or resist. Video recordings show that." Cooper replied that he was only providing an advance description and could not adjudicate the dispute over the phone.
Francis asked whether the report had been amended after submission and whether dispatch recordings were preserved. Cooper said those questions would need to go through records and the review process. Then he added another detail: Officer Bellamy had submitted a separate statement supporting Mason's account.